


And We Run, And We Run

by sequence_fairy



Category: Bleach
Genre: Early Canon Setting, F/M, Friendship, The nakama of it all tbh, sharing food
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:41:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26010571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sequence_fairy/pseuds/sequence_fairy
Summary: Ichigo nods, gathering himself to sidestep into shunpo. Before he can move, Rukia rests one small palm on his forearm. He looks down at her. She looks up at him.“Be careful,” she warns, and Ichigo grins.“Always am,” he says, cocksure and lazy.“There’s civilians,” Inoue says, pointing to the group of teenagers lazing much the same way they had been earlier.“Get them out,” Ishida says, and then he’s gone, phased into the Quincy slipstream.“Aye, aye,” Chad says, with a quick salute, and then he’s off and running.There's a bond that's formed when you save the world together.
Relationships: Kuchiki Rukia/Kurosaki Ichigo
Comments: 8
Kudos: 44





	And We Run, And We Run

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [SJ Big Three zine](https://twitter.com/SJBigThree), thanks to the mods of the project for having me! 
> 
> This work is not super shippy, but in my heart of hearts, Ichigo and Rukia are always in love, so.

Rukia follows Ichigo up to the roof once classes break for the morning. 

How he ever thought that he’d continue to have lunch on his own is beyond him.

She steals the candy bar out of his lunch and elbows him, sharply, in the side when he doesn’t make space for Ishida to join them against the fence. The rest of them drift in while Rukia and Ichigo argue in low tones about why she cannot just have the chocolate he has purposefully purchased for his own lunch. Rukia eyes him over the half-eaten chocolate bar and Ichigo knows it’s a lost cause. 

Chad lounges, propped up on one elbow, across from the three of them, and Inoue sits, cross-legged in her skirt, on Rukia’s other side. 

It’s not that Ichigo doesn’t like the company, it’s that he’s never had it before. He’s always been a bit of a surly asshole, he knows, and that has stood in the way of his making friends. But when Rukia bullied her way in, she dragged the rest of them along with her. Ichigo never stood a chance. 

Rukia leans, once again, over into Ichigo’s space, reaching in and snatching one of the strawberries out of the container he has set in front of him. 

“Hey!” 

Rukia grins, pops the berry into her mouth and chews thoughtfully. “Very nice,” she says after swallowing. 

“I know,” Ichigo agrees, picking up the container to keep it out of her reach. “They’re mine. Get your own.”

“Oh c’mon, Kurosaki,” Chad rumbles from across the way “You’ve got plenty. Don’t deny the lady a strawberry.” 

“She’s had hers,” Ichigo protests. Beside him, Ishida snorts delicately into the hand not holding his sandwich. Ichigo levels him with what he hopes is a withering side-eye but from the way he also catches Chad smirking at him, he supposes he doesn’t manage.

“Here, Rukia,” Inoue says, handing Rukia another container. “Try these.” 

Conversation moves on under the brilliant blue of the early Tokyo summer. When it’s finally time to go back in for their afternoon classes, Rukia hangs back after the others to wait for Ichigo, who has taken his time getting to his feet and is having a stretch. Reaching over his head makes his spine crack satisfyingly and he shakes out his arms once he’s relaxed them back down to his sides.

“We’ll be late,” Rukia says, when he meets her at the door. Ichigo flicks her on the shoulder, and then precedes her through the door and down the stairs. Her noise of indignation follows him all the way down the stairwell. 

-:-

There’s one week of school left. Ichigo’s birthday is this weekend and so far, aside from the annual trek to his mother’s grave in the morning, nothing could dampen his mood. The river gleams just ahead and he can already hear the shrieks of the kids at the playground.

Ichigo drops the soccer ball he’s carrying as soon as his feet hit the grass on the park side of the sidewalk. He kicks the ball, hard, towards where Chad is waiting for him, leaning against a lamppost and scrolling through his phone. 

Chad looks up just in time, and moves, effortless, to trap the ball and then kick it back to Ichigo. Before it gets to him, Rukia darts in from where she’d been following Ichigo, and steals the ball away with a quick turning move he knows she must have learned from Karin. Ichigo gives chase. 

Chad follows after them at an easy jog, but he’s there to accept the ball when Rukia kicks it to him in a last-minute pass that Ichigo only barely misses getting his foot on. 

They run around like that, trading off who the loser is in the keep away game, until they get tired. Ishida finds them, all sprawled on the grass, staring up at the darkening sky, the ball forgotten some distance away. 

Ichigo sits up at the sound of approach, and Rukia rises beside him. Even when he can see that it’s just Ishida, the tension still doesn’t quite slide out of Ichigo’s shoulders. It’s twilight, the veil is thinnest now, anything could slip through. It’s not until Ishida joins them, sitting cross legged on the grass between Chad and Rukia, that Ichigo finally feels himself relax. 

Ishida produces a thin envelope from inside his jacket and hands it to Ichigo without a word. 

“What’s this?” Ichigo asks, turning the envelope over in his hands. Rukia snatches at it, but Ichigo deftly avoids her questing fingers. 

“It’s noth–” Ishida is interrupted by a voice from across the park. 

“Ichigo!” It’s Inoue. The dusk light is kind to her, softening her down to pastels and gentle curves. She raises a hand in greeting, and they all lift one in return. 

Ichigo shoves the envelope into the back pocket of his jeans as they all stand to meet Inoue, and forgets about it. 

He finds it later that weekend and opens it sitting on his bed. It’s a birthday card. Ishida’s spidery script is cramped and his message brief. It still makes warmth glow at the tips of Ichigo’s ears. This is the second birthday card he’s gotten this year from someone who wasn’t family. Ichigo sets Ishida’s card on his window sill, next to the one Rukia had dropped on his face the morning of his birthday, before she disappeared through the window and out into the pre-dawn sky.

-:-

It’s summer break now, and they’re all down by the river again. The setting sun is still hot. The sky is crystal clear. Rukia has spilled her ice cream down her front and Ichigo is laughing so hard he can’t breathe.

“Get me a napkin,” Rukia grouses, but Ichigo keels over onto his back instead. Rukia picks at the front of her dress, and scowls at the rest of her ice cream cone. 

There’s a change in the breeze. It brings them all to sober alert in half a breath. The hair on Ichigo’s arms rises. When he turns to Rukia, she’s already wearing her glove. 

The punch to his sternum takes Ichigo’s breath away, but it doesn’t matter because heaved outside of his body, he no longer truly needs the air choked off in his lungs. There’s a crackling sound to his left and a growing blue glow as Ishida pulls the arc of his bow out of thin air. The scent of  _ reishi _ sits heavy on the back of Ichigo’s tongue. 

The silence hangs for a long moment. 

The hollow bursts through the tree line at the other end of the park with a roar. 

Ichigo reaches up and back, drawing  _ Zangetsu _ , and settling into the tide of power rising in his blood. It still feels like the first time. 

“Ichigo,” Rukia says, low and urgent, “go left. Chad, you cover the right. Ishida will take point.” 

Ichigo nods, gathering himself to sidestep into  _ shunpo _ . Before he can move, Rukia rests one small palm on his forearm. He looks down at her. She looks up at him. 

“Be careful,” she warns, and Ichigo grins. 

“Always am,” he says, cocksure and lazy. 

“There’s civilians,” Inoue says, pointing to the group of teenagers lazing much the same way they had been earlier. 

“Get them out,” Ishida says, and then he’s gone, phased into the Quincy slipstream. 

“Aye, aye,” Chad says, with a quick salute, and then he’s off and running. 

Ichigo takes a deep breath, and side steps, bringing  _ Zangetsu _ up and over his head in one fluid motion. If he’s timed this right, he’ll come out of the phase at exactly the right moment.

He doesn’t. The hollow takes him out at his knees, sending  _ Zangetsu  _ tumbling away into the dark. The hiss and sizzle of one of Ishida’s arrows burying itself into hollow’s outer armour makes Ichigo look up from where he’s sprawled out on the ground. 

“Shit,” he says, and flings himself towards his sword, fingers grabbing at and catching on the wrappings so he can pull it into his hand. 

Chad yells, following through on a vicious uppercut that sends the Hollow rolling onto its back and Ichigo leaps. He drives  _ Zangetsu _ ’s point straight through the Hollow’s body and into the ground beneath it.

It dies with a gruesome roar. 

Rukia picks her way across the grass, careful to avoid the deep furrows from the Hollow’s claws and the impact craters from where it landed when Chad threw it. Ichigo stands, slinging  _ Zangetsu _ back onto his back. Inoue follows Rukia. They gather at the spot where the Hollow died, its fading  _ reishi _ still faintly traceable on the outermost edge of Ichigo’s awareness.

“Nice work,” Rukia says, when she gets close enough that they can hear her. 

Inoue starts with Ishida, fingers light but sure against his face, and then down his arms. Satisfied that Ishida is uninjured, Inoue turns next to Chad and then to Ichigo, assessing each of them. Her fingers linger on a sluggishly bleeding graze across one of Chad’s cheekbones, and when she removes her hand, his skin is healed. 

“Ice cream?” Inoue asks, when she’s done, and Ichigo has been shoved back into his more human body. 

“Rukia will have to get hers in a bowl this time,” Ichigo says, to a chorus of laughter. They leave the park, safe once again. 

-:-

“Hey, get that for me, would you?” 

“Get it yourself,” Ichigo snarks back, but he’s already reaching up to the shelf holding the plush figure Rukia has pointed out. 

Further down the aisle, Chad and Inoue are engaged in a heated exchange entirely in whispers while Ishida pointedly ignores them both. 

“What do you want this thing for anyway?” Ichigo asks, turning the bunny over in his hands to examine it. It’s soft and the ears are long and floppy. Rukia grabs it out of his hands. 

“It’s cute,” she says, hugging it to her chest. 

“We’re supposed to be getting school supplies.” Ichigo gestures to the basket laid over his arm, holding one notebook and one pack of pencils. 

“This is a school supply,” Rukia asserts, and before Ichigo can argue with her, she’s turning to get Inoue’s attention. “Chappy is a school supply, right?” 

Inoue nods solemnly. Behind her, Ishida covers his mouth with one hand but Ichigo can see the lift of his lips, and knows he is going to be teased mercilessly about this for the next forever. He sighs, and decides he can live with the mortification and leaves them all to fend for themselves while he goes to the other side of the store to get what they actually came for.

They all end up in line at roughly the same time, which Ichigo thinks was probably premeditated but no one will cop to it, so they all stand there, waiting, together. Rukia shoves the plush bunny into Ichigo’s basket, along with a stack of notebooks and some truly hideous pencils that he knows will end up covering everything they both own in glitter. 

“Rukia,” Ichigo mutters, thinking about the dwindling savings in his bank account. She looks up at him, eyes bright. Ichigo is already giving in. 

Later, at the food court, Rukia pushes her fries across the rickety table towards him with a winsome smile. An offering, of sorts. Ichigo takes a fry. 

“Thank you,” he says. 

“You’re welcome,” Rukia answers, tugging her container of fries back. 

“Me too, please,” Inoue says, and reaches in to grab a fry of her own. 

“Hey!” 

“Oh, are you sharing?” Chad leans over to help himself. 

“I’m not!” Rukia insists, curling an arm protectively around her fries. Ishida meets Ichigo’s amused gaze with one of his own from the other end of the table. 

-:-

“Ichigo?” Inoue calls, raising her voice to be heard over the din of noise in the cafeteria. Ichigo looks up from the spread of school books across the table in front of him. Inoue pushes her hair back behind her ears, and settles herself across the table from Ichigo. “What are you studying?” 

“Calculus,” Ichigo mutters. It’s not going well. He’s got a head for literature, not this numbers bullshit. “Hey, you’re good at this stuff,” he says to Inoue, pushing his textbook at her. “Can you explain this?”

Inoue looks down at the problem set. “Oh sure!” 

Half an hour later, Ichigo gets through the first equation without wanting to tear his hair out and Inoue pats him on the shoulder. Her smile is blinding.

“You did it!” She chirps, pleased. “I knew you could.” 

“Well that makes one of us,” Ichigo says, but he already feels more confident to attempt the next set. Inoue gets up and goes back to sitting across from him, drawing her bookbag up into her lap.

“When you’re through,” Inoue says, “can you help me with this?” She pulls out a battered copy of  _ As You Like It _ and drops it in the middle of Ichigo’s math notes. 

“Are we having a study group?” Rukia appears from nowhere and drops heavily into the chair that Inoue has just vacated. 

“I’m just trying to get my calculus homework done,” Ichigo says, but he makes space for Rukia’s textbooks next to his. Across the table, Inoue is reading, her brows furrowed in concentration. 

Ishida and Chad find them like that after the next bell. 

“Here,” Ishida says, setting a plate of cookies down in the centre of the table. “We baked in home ec today.” 

Ichigo surfaces from his history notes to snag a cookie and then grabs one for Rukia too, because she can’t reach the plate from where she’s sitting.

Chad pulls up an extra chair and sits down next to Inoue. He skims over the notes she’s been taking. “No, wait,” Chad says, “that’s not quite the right translation. Here, it’s like this.” 

Chad picks up Inoue’s pen and adds to her page. Inoue watches and her eyes widen. “Oh,” she says, “oh, that makes so much more sense. What about this?” she asks, flipping back in her book to a marked page and showing it to Chad. 

“Can I sit?” Ishida asks, motioning to the chair on the other side of Ichigo. 

“Sure,” Ichigo says, re-piling his discarded math notebook and texts so that he can make space. 

-:- 

It’s not ‘til months later that Ichigo puts it together. 

They’ve fought monsters together. They eat lunch together on the roof every day. They sit in the cafeteria and bicker over study notes. Inoue brings them all inedible snacks that only Rukia is brave enough to try. They have saved each other’s lives more than once and will probably continue to do so. 

Originally, Ichigo had thought maybe it was just the draw of Rukia’s presence, her newness. It’s not though, he knows now. They all bring their own pieces to the puzzle that makes up the whole of the patchwork friendship they’ve built over the last several months. He looks up from his lunch, and watches Inoue lean into Rukia’s side, laughing, and watches Chad leaning over to show Ishida something on his phone, and looks up further, to the cloudless sky. 

He closes his eyes, the warmth of the sun on his skin matches the warmth bleeding through him. 

“Earth to Ichigo,” Rukia says, poking him sharply in the side. Ichigo opens his eyes. She’s looking up at him. “I brought extra berries today,” she says, and offers him the container. 

There’s nowhere Ichigo would rather be.

**Author's Note:**

> Pls come and chat about my fic on [tumblr](http://sequencefairy.tumblr.com) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/warpspeed_chic). Thanks for reading! <3


End file.
